The other dimension: A search for the meaning of religious attitudes

The reviewer finds it very difficult to summarize and evaluate this book. There are two major reasons why this is the case. First, Dupre's great breadth of learning leads him to refer to so many positions on so many points that it becomes rather difficult to detect and follow the lines of argument. Furthermore, even in a book of such great length expositions of so many positions means that, of necessity, each is rather truncated and thus may be misleading. At least this seems to be the case with respect to some of the positions with this reviewer is familiar such as some of the process and analytical philosophers. Secondly, Dupre's perspective is largely phenomenological and dialectical. While some valuable insights may be gained from such a perspective, this reviewer must confess that he finds much of it obscure, vague, and confusing. The fault, of course, may lie in the reviewer and not in the book. One thoroughly knowledgeable in this mode of analysis might find profound truths in what appear to be obscurities. At the outset Dupre claims that his task as a philosopher is to engage in critical reflection on the given, in this case, religion. Philosophy is concerned with what is, not with what ought to be, nor with predicton of what will be. Thus, his role is that of a critic, not an actor. His purpose is to understand religion, to locate this phenomenon on the total map of human experience. His conclusion is that faith is a complex movement by the mind discovers a new reality which, although lying beyond the phenomenal and contrasting with it, ultimately integrates all reality into a higher synthesis (p. 10). Religious experience overcomes the subject object dichotomy and this unity is expressed through symbol and myth. Revelation, too, escapes this dichotomy and symbols unveil the transcendent dimension in the real reaches its unification (p. 11). While philosophy may clarify, the origin and development of the concept of God is entirely a matter of the act. Involved is dependence upon an absolute reality, the sense of estrangement and integration with the absolute and all other beings. Salvation is discussed in terms of its symbolization in history, moral conversion, and mystical union. Throughout runs the theme. Religious perception of the transcendent is symbolical and (p. 14). Negation is always involved in talk of the transcendent for religious language is always dialectical (p. 19). Salvation is the movement which proposes a transcendent reality, opposes it to ordinary existence, and composes the opposites in a participation of the divine (p. 19), or in a mystical union with the divine. While Dupre has brought to his discussion of these issues an impressive amount of material from a wide range of sources, it seems to this reviewer that he has not remained consistent with his avowed purpose of being a critic but rather in a subtle way is an advocate for a certain Christian perspective. Perhaps, this is most obvious in the last three chapters dealing with alienation, salvation, and mystical union. Yet it is obvious also in